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20090610

June 9 2009 update: death toll. South African smallholdings and farms: 3,059…

Semi-arid South Africa only ever had 12.1% arable land in total – and now, only 0.79% of the entire country’s land surface still remains farmed with permanent food-crops by less than 12,500 commercial farmers (SA tax records, 2005), says CIA World Factbook

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ROSENDAL. June 8 2009. A massive manhunt was launched after Mrs Nellie Janse van Rensburg, 53, handicapped after a stroke, and Mrs Martha van den Berg, 76, her frail, elderly mom were attacked and beaten black and blue on their farm Rooihoogte, reports Beeld newspaper. Vicus Bürger of the Afrikaans newspaper Beeld reports that seven to eight farm-attackers had participated in the attack on the two totally defenceless Afrikaner farm women. They were both left badly traumatised and police said they were ‘beaten black and blue’. Robbered from the gun-safe were a shotgun, a .22 rifle, a .22 pistol and an airgun, three cellphones and R900 in cash (about $90).

One suspect was shot and injured after he ended up in a shootout with members of a search team and police arrested three more suspects during which all the stolen guns were recovered, they said. The attack took place on Monday-morning. Farmer Japie Janse van Rensburg, husband of the handicapped woman, said he had gone to neighbouring farms where his livestock was grazing to give them supplemental feed. Their daughters Marthie and Lientjie were at their businesses in the nearby town of Rosendal. His wife was handicapped after a stroke four years ago, he said, and was totally defenceless. She was lying in her bed in their bedroom, and her mother Martha van den Berg was sitting with her when the large gang of black men entered the homestead. They told Martha to a chair with electric cables and then proceeded to beat both of the women very viciously.

After seven years and four trials, wife-murderer Pieter Viljoen sent to prison

Jun 9 2009 Philip de Bruin of Beeld newspaper reports that the convicted wife-murderer Pieter Viljoen, who cut his wife’s throat at their Pretoria smallholding seven years ago, has finally started serving his jail sentence. He managed to delay this with four trials and repeated appeals.

Picture: The tragically murdered Amelia and her murderer-husband Pieter on their wedding day.

On Friday, Viljoen was denied leave to appeal against his sentence by the Court of Appeals. Shortly thereafter his lawyer Gerhard Wagenaar said they were considering lodging an application in the Constitutional Court next. This appeal would involve the ‘unique nature of Viljoen’s initial questioning by the police after his arrest’. Initially he had admitted guilt to murdering his wife, but then was judged not guilty based on the denial of his constitutional rights when this admission of guilt was submitted to the High Court in Pretoria. The Court of Appeals then ordered his retrial. Viljoen then was found guilty and ordered to serve a 22-year prison sentence. Wagenaar told de Bruin however that Viljoen decided against lodging an appeal in the Constitutional court purely for financial reasons, not for legal reasons.’ He would be eligible for parole within eleven years.The murdered wife Amelia ‘s dad Koos Brits of Bela-Bela (Badplaas), told the newspaper that ‘this stuff should never have happened. For me, Pieter is like my own child. He was my son-in-law for three years. He was a good child. But I am pleased that everything now is over and that we can now find peace about the death of our child.’ http://jv.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2528112,00.html

June 9 2009. DE DEUR, VEREENIGING. Beeld reports that a gruesome scene greeted a man when he came across the corpse of a male relative, 28, hanging from the rafters of his home, and the body of a woman on a bed in the same room. Susan Cilliers of Beeld newspaper and the South African Press Association reported that the couple’s name has not yet been released, pending notification of kin. Police forensic experts are investigating whether there was crime involved or not. The woman apparently was poisoned, and the man found found hanged from the rafters in the same room with a coat-hanger. It’s not known at this stage whether the deaths were self-inflicted, said det-sergeant Khalala Mokoena. Apparently the nephew of the dead man had gone to his room to fetch some work-clothes, but did not get any reaction when he knocked on the door. He then went to his nephew’s parents who lived on the same farm, and together they kicked open the door and came across the bodies of the couple. “They were very shocked and said they weren’t aware that the couple had any problems’, said Moekoena. The last time the couple was still seen alive, was around 6pm Monday. Police asked anyone with more information about the couple’s deaths to contact telephone 016 590 1070 or 082 778 5941 http://jv.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2527853,00.htmlWe are not listing this couple on the farm-murder lists until cause of death is known.

June 9 2009. PORT SHEPSTONE, KZN. Two men from the Magog-township near Southport at the KZN-South Coast were arrested after police found the body of a man in the woods near the township. Police believe the decomposing body is that of the missing Mr Arthur Lee Wills, 84, who had gone missing two weeks earlier after he’d left his daughter’s house where he lived, in his bakkie. His bakkie, with blood on the seats, was found via the Tracker satellite-tracking system at KwaMutha, several kilometres from the old man’s home after his daughter, unnamed, reported him missing the next day. Police inspector Doepie du Plessis and the violent-crime units of Port Shepstone and Durban launched a search for the suspects after the vehicle was found, and arrested two men. They are still looking for a third man, said Du Plessis. The suspicion is that Mr Wills had been kidnapped and murdered. http://jv.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2528144,00.html

June 1 2009. A venerated, elderly Cistercian missionary from Upper Austria who dedicated the last forty ears of his life to the Maria Zell rural mission in the Griqualand region of South Africa near Kokstad, was found murdered there on Sunday. Authorities said Father Ernst Plöchl, 78, born in Neumarkt im Mühlkreis in the Austrian district of Freistadt, was killed under circumstances which remain murky. He was either shot to death or strangled, and it’s also not known if anything was stolen or what the actual motive may have been.The priest was widely admired in his hometown for his dedication to try and uplift the poor. A memorial mass is planned in his Austrian hometown on Friday. (Picture of father Ernst Plöchl by Marianhill Religious Order.)

Information initially given by the South African authorities was confusing: it was at first announced that he had been shot, while the word later was that he had been strangled. His religious order announced he would be brought back to Austria and buried in his native country. Father Plöchl was found dead on Sunday morning at his lonely outpost of Maria Zell mission, said Father Andreas Rohring, a spokesman for the Mariannhill order. He spoke to Austria's APA news agency. The elderly priest’s murder sent immediate shockwaves throughout Austria, as the ‘socially very engaged’ priest was a much-loved figure in his home country. A memorial mass will be held for him on Friday at Neumarkt-im-Mühlkreis, his home town, where he is much loved for his dedication to help the poor in South Africa. The Marianhill missions were founded in South Africa n 1882 by the Rev. Francis Pfanner, then prior of the Trappist (Reformed Cistercian) Monastery of Maria-stern (Bosnia). He landed at Port Elizabeth with thirty-one companions in July, 1880, and settled in a place he called Dunbrody, after an old Irish monastery. This he had to abandon in 1882; and at the solicitation of the late Bishop Jolivet, O.M.I., transferred his community to Mariannhil. http://www.rundschau.co.at/rsooe/home/story.csp?cid=8846560&sid=75&fid=55http://oce.catholic.com/index.php?title=Congregation_of_the_Missionaries_of_Mariannhillhttp://www.griquas.com/2007/14/090.jpg

June 2 2009. This is Krugersdorp smallholding Koos Dreyer (57), who had to fight a determined battle against five armed attacks during a siege of their smallholding at Tarlton near Krugersdorp. Picture: Amanda Roestoff, Beeld newspaper . The middle-aged Afrikaner couple, who live at the Eljeesee smallholdings at Tarlton near Krugersdorp, fought for their lives against at least five attackers who invaded their homestead on Saturday-night. Mr Dreyer was repeated stabbed with a short knife and also chopped in his upper torso with a handmade sword. He and wife Ria, 59, were asleep at 1.30am on Saturday when 'at least five men' cut through the electrified fencing around their smallholding and broke into their homestead. Mr Dreyer said he stormed down the hallway when hearing the noise, and one man grabbed his homemade-sword, another grabbed a hockey-stick, and started hammering at him. He fell to the ground while the blows kept raining on him, he said. "I know I had to try and reach my handgun and when they gave me another blow, I playacted by stumbling backwards and falling across the bed to get my gun.' He fired off one shot, but missed. Meanwhile his wife Ria also was grappling with the attackers, throwing them with 'anything at hand', he said. Then Ria managed to get hold of his gun and fired off several shots in the general direction of the attackers. The men fled with the handmade sword and a pair of binoculars in one of Dreyer's farm vehicles. It was however found abandoned about a kilometre down the road at the appropriately named 'Stilhou' street (Standing Still Street) when its automatic theft-prevention device turned it off automatically. The Dreyers first contacted their daughter, Mrs Marie Niemand, 31 and Dreyer's brother-in-law Johnny van Vuuren drove him to the Krugersdorp hospital. Doctors took four hours to stitch up all his wounds. He was released the same day. http://jv.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2525340,00.html

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200090528 Bernie Leibbrandt, 66, shot execution-style, Mnandi smallholdings Centurion – only a cellphone missing… children live in UK and New Zealand

May 29, 2009. Hilda Fourie of Beeld newspaper reports from their Pretoria office that an 80-year-old woman on Thursday found the body of her murdered stepson in front of his smallholding garage in Mnandi, Centurion. Bernie Leibbrandt, 66, picture taken by a friend, had been shot in the head execution-style. Leibbrandt leaves two daughters and a son, all in their thirties - living in England and New Zealand. He used to be a cricketer at the Harlequins cricket team. The smallholding lies right next to an upmarket golfing estate. "They only took his cellphone. Not his new Mercedes 4X4. Nothing, nothing. Bugger-all," said his best friend, Rudolph du Plessis, 43. "This was no robbery, it wasn't a break-in, it was just plain murder." Leibbrandt had been visiting his neighbour Du Plessis at the smallholding on Wednesday night. Just before 21:00, Leibbrandt went back to his own smallholding. "When he arrived at his smallholding, he was shot in the head," said Du Plessis. "He even fell on the bag of potatoes I gave him." A friend of Leibbrandt's, Rosaly Seidler, said his stepmother, Vera Leibbrandt, 80, found his body in front of the garage on Thursday morning at about 08:00. Vera lives in another house on the same smallholding. It borders on the upmarket Gardener Ross Golfing Estate pictured here She became concerned when he didn't answer his cellphone, so she went to his house. Seidler said some of Leibbrandt's possessions were on the stoep, but nothing at all was missing except for the cellphone. "It's so sad and senseless. I have no idea what the motive could have been," she said. "I'm bitterly sad that someone has done this to my pal," Du Plessis said. "He had a heart of gold. He was adored by each and every person he met. "I'm his closest pal. He was like a father to me." http://jv.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2523736,00.html

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20090520 Koos Maas, 74, Elandsfontein smallholder, Fochville, NW

May 21 2009 Amanda Roestoff of Beeld newspaper writes that police forensic experts are still examining whether farmer Koos Maas, 74, of Elandsfontein near the gold-mining town of Fochville/Ekurhuleni in North West province, had died of a head injury when he was bashed over the head with a blunt instrument during a farm attack - or whether he’d died of heart failure from the shock. Either way, he’s become the 3,057th known victim of the armed attacks on South African commercial homesteads which have been plaguing the country since at least 1994 and which have created very dangerous working conditions for farmers, their workers and their families throughout the South African countryside. The old farmer was found dead with serious head injuries and his hands were tied were behind his back. Police forensic examinators will also try to establish whether the old Afrikaner, who ‘had been left for dead’ by his armed, young attackers, could have survived if he’d received immediate medical care. His widow Anna, 72, was able to get herself untied from the bonds with which she was tied up by a group of at least three armed men who attacked their smallholding on May 20. They had dragged the old lady to the bedroom, demanding guns and cash. After they left, she was able to alert a neighbour. The late Mr Maas was a nephew of the father of Fochville police station commander superintendent Hennie Maas. Three suspects have been arrested and are bieng questioned. Supt. Maas said the three men, in their twenties, were arrested in the neighbouring township of Kokosi. Fochville farming community’s fire- and disaster committee manager Trevor Slabbert said it’s ‘unacceptable that the government pays so little attention to the suffering of commercial farmers and their families from these armed attackers. ‘We expect someone from the government to now finally stand up after all these years and say, ‘enough is enough’, and then also do something about it, not just talk about it,’ he said. http://jv.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2520500,00.html latest crime records from Fochville (sept 2007): http://www.saps.gov.za/statistics/reports/crimestats/2007/april_sept2007/provinces/nwest/fochville.pdf

May 24 2009 Rapport newspaper’s journalists Bohemia Hoffmeester & Lizané Louw write that a Bellville man appeared in court on Friday after turning himself in to police in connection with the death of a farm worker's child, Adriaan Plaatjies, 17, at a Paarl wedding on March 28. The Paarl Magistrate's Court heard that Plaatjies died from a ruptured liver and internal bleeding. There were also bruises on his neck. Eyewitnesses who spoke to Rapport newspaper claimed they had allegedly seen ‘five big men assault the boy, after which some woman had apparently said, ‘you're a star’ to one of the attackers.‘ The incident happened on March 28 at the wedding reception of Ryan and Linda Liebenberg on the farm Rusticana at Klapmuts near Paarl. The boy, who reportedly had had run-ins with the law before, was caught breaking into a car. Francois Pretorius, 23, handed himself over to police but denied in court that he took part in the assault. He admitted kicking ‘towards the boy’ after allegedly seeing "something shiny" in his hand. Pretorius said he had found the boy in a car outside the reception venue. A laptop computer and carrier bag stood outside the car. Another man then allegedly assaulted the boy. The groom came outside and at some point apparently remarked that he had blood on his shoe, which he would have to wash off. Pretorius, on the right, photographed by Rapport newspaper with his father Andries, was released on bail of R500 ($50) and ordered to appear in court on June 19 2009. http://jv.news24.com/Rapport/Suid-Afrika/0,,752-2460_2521362,00.html

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BELFAST POLICE SOLVE FARM ROBBERY, RECOVER GOODS. ARREST TWO

Investigation officers of the Belfast SAPS with the recovered goods. Fltr: D/Insp JP Mabeloane, CIO Const TA Sepeng, D/Const N Ndimande, D/Const KD Sello and D/Const GM Monama = May 20 2009 – Belfast South Africa. SAPS Investigation officers made a breakthrough by arresting two suspects for housebreaking and theft at a farm house. It is alleged that the two suspects broke into a farm house and broke the safe with intentions of getting money but with no success. Thereafter they stole all the groceries which they could found inside the house, before stealing some machines out of the garage. The police received a tip-off from one of their informers. This information led to the arrest of the suspects and the recovery of the stolen goods. The suspects are due in the Belfast Magistrates' Court on 20 May 2009.Reported by constable K C Rankwe. http://www.sapsjournalonline.gov.za/dynamic/journal_dynamic.aspx?pageid=414&jid=15328

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20090430 Pieter Honeyborne, 50, killed at farm Goedehoop near Bethal: two of five attackers arrested by Blinkpan police, family terrorised by squatters

May 20 2009 - Story by Buks Viljoen, Beeld newspaper. A farmer with 300 workers was shot dead at his homestead on the farm Goedehoop near the towns of Blinkpan, Bethal in the Eastvaal region of Mpumalanga by five attackers, described as ‘young, black males’ in the local news media. Police have now arrested two suspects. For the past four years, the family and their 300 workers are being terrorised by illegal squatters who have moved their shacks onto the private farmland. The murdered farmer’s son, also Pieter, said the family is still trying to keep the farm going, however they are being 'terrorised, victimised and intimidated'. He claims the police ‘refuses to investigate their charges’, and instead have arrested him for ‘theft ‘ when he had taken back the wood which squatters had been looting from his farm. They are also slaughtering the livestock with their dog packs, he said. After the murder of their family patriarch, the grieving relatives say, they now are too scared to remain on the farm overnight after repeated breakins since that time – and because of the ongoing intimidation against them at their homestead. And the family’s 300 farm workers, who have been working for the Honeyborne family for generations, now also face losing their livelihood. He said that after the family's repeated charges of theft, initimidation of workers and poaching of their stock ‘were being ignored by police’, he personally pleaded with the provincial head of the SAPS detectives unit director Tony Gama, for help to protect their workers and his family against the aggressive squatter community. His pleading seems to have paid off: the Beeld journalist was told on May 19 2009 by police inspector Sarel Smit of the Blinkpan police station that two suspects have now been arrested for the murder of Pieter Honeyborne senior. The police are also 'aware of the squatter problem' said Smit, and are now riding patrols across the farm every two hours. http://jv.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2519206,00.html5 black male attackers, nothing robbed http://jv.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2510004,00.html

Beeld Afrikaans newspaper reports on May 18 2009 that two accused gunmen have appeared in court in connection with the murder of 60-year-old Wilfred Roddrick Berrington, a guest who was attending a wedding at the Muldersdrift Avianto smallholding party venue on April 24 2009.The residents at all the Muldersdrift/Kameeldrift smallholdings areas near Pretoria are targetted very frequently by such armed gangs. This facility was described as a ‘secured’ area with private security guards.The two suspects, Phelelani Zuma (24) of Diepsloot squatter camp, and Phumelelo Mlilo (29) of Berea in downtown Johannesburg, were not asked to plead at the Krugersdorp magistrate’s court. They were ordered by the magistrate to remain in custody until 25 May, when they are expected to apply for bail before they will be asked to plead to any charges. The Afrikaans newspaper reports that Berrington was attacked and killed when he had briefly left the wedding party to fetch something in his nearby room, reports journalist Amanda Roestoff http://jv.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2518608,00.html Such ‘safe, secure’ venues are widely recommended as ‘safe’ hotels for the many foreign visitors who are expected at the FIFA World Cup 2010 football tournaments, which are starting their first semi-finals soon in South Africa. Also see the forum on how foreign visitors to the World Cup 2010 can get around South Africa safely and at

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20090508 Venter family survives attack at Vergenoeg farm, Petrusburg

May 19 2009 – PETRUSBURG MAGISTRATE’S COURT. Free State police report that three suspects appeared in the Petrusburg Magistrates' Court on 14 May 2009, on charges of housebreaking, theft and attempted murder of a local farmer. A fourth suspect also was in custody. The case was postponed for further investigation and for the suspects to seek legal representation. The three were arrested by Det.Insp Mpata on 12 May 2009 in Bolokanang township near Petrusburg. The three named accused, 22-year-old Jan "Toffy" Motete, 35-year-old Steven Sibongile Khuze and 25-year-old Esau "Chikoya" Lemane were ordered to appear in court again on 22 May 2009. The fourth (unnamed) suspect was arrested on 14 May 2009 at about 19:00 in Turflaagte in Bloemfontein and appeared at Petrusburg Magistrates' Court on Monday, 18 May 2009. According to the charge sheets in court, it is alleged that on 8 May 2009 at about 19:00, four suspects arrived on the Vergenoeg farm in Petrusburg, owned by the Venter family. Two suspects previously worked at the farm and were well informed about the routine of the farm owners. Allegations are that the four suspects broke a window, gained access to the house and started looting it. The farm owner upon his return noticed that the window was broken and went inside to get a torch while his wife waited outside. He found the house ransacked. He went outside to investigate and met with the four suspects who assaulted him. His wife ran and locked herself in the outside toilet from where she managed to phone their son who called the police. Realising that Mr Venter was no longer moving while being assaulted, the suspects fled with the stolen goods. Mr Venter suffered injuries to his face and was treated by a local doctor. The stolen hi-fi system was later found in the veld, indicating that the suspects dropped it as it was too heavy to carry. The stolen cellphone and some of the stolen clothes were found during the arrest of the first suspect “who confessed everything and led the police to the other suspects,’ reports sergeant N P Mbambo, tel (051) 5076472, Cellphone: 0824556030 Email fsprovcommun@saps.org.zahttp://www.sapsjournalonline.gov.za/dynamic/journal_dynamic.aspx?pageid=414&jid=15265

Hungarian-born Jozseph Kuli, a retired industrial chemist and landscaping contractor, was murdered on March 24 2009 at his agricultural smallholding in greater Johannesburg just before his 70th birthday. Expat daughter Maria Atkins was visiting her father at the time with her husband from Australia to celebrate his 70th birthday. Five armed thugs gunned down the unarmed ex-Hungarian refugee as he fled from his bed. Mrs Atkins said he was a a keen conservationist of South Africa’s lavish variety of ferns and after retiring from his mining job, turned his hand to landscape contracting. It’s ironic that a Hungarian refugee who had survived Soviet suppression and an armed uprising in 1956, would be slaughtered in this senseless way in South Africa – a country he’d contributed so many skills to, and a country which he’d believed would be safe to raise his family in. He was born in the ancient* bronze-age village of Tápiószecső, Hungary.http://censorbugbear-reports.blogspot.com/2009/05/1956-hungarian-refugee-jozseph-kuli_18.html

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Accused murderer of Dutch dairy farmers Johan and Cobi van den Bosch in court, also accused of robbing two cellphones

May 11 2009 - Twenty-five year old Akhona Inocent Gini, in the superman t-shirt, appeared in the Cullinan magistrate’s court charged with the gruesome murders of the Dutch dairy-farming couple Johan and Cobi van den Bosch at their smallholding near Mooiplaats. Gini was arrested in a squatter camp outside Witbank, police said. Beeld journalist Hilda Fourie took his picture outside the court. Gini, according to the court records, appears on two charges of murder, and one charge of robbery with extenuating circumstances. Gini was a former employee of the Dutch-born couple. Police told the news media that one of the couple’s two stolen cellphones was found with him. He has apparently submitted a statement admitting his guilt in the case. However magistrate Petro Engelbrecht postposted the case for a week for further investigations, and to allow Gini to obtain legal aid for his bail application. His admission of guilt will not be automatically accepted in South African law courts until he has given a plea-explanation in court anyway. He remains in custody until his next court appearance. source: http://jv.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2514828,00.html

May 12 2009 - Pictured on this Beeld photograph by Cornel van Heerden left, are Mrs Gerda Kemp (right), Danolien Postma (left) and Chrisna Hoffman, who told the news media in a cheerful interview that they have arranged a bursary for the housekeeper, Mrs Nndyadzeni Rasivhaga, 19, who together with her lover, farm worker Vincent Singo, 25, has been charged with the murder of their mother, Lien Gronüm (right). The women told this story outside the Pretoria High Court on May 11 2009, after the accused lovers’ murder case was moved to November 16 for trial. Beeld journalist Herman Scholtz reported that the murdered woman’s three daughters told him that Mrs Grönum ‘had been busy arranging a bursary for her housekeeper’ when she was allegedly murdered. Mrs Grönum (71) was murdered on 18 April 2008 on her farm Geluk, near Brits – stabbed to death. Her widower found her bloodied body after he returned from town, where he’d taken his farm workers for a shopping trip. The case was moved to 16 November after the court reportedly refused to accept the accused couple s plea explanations, and when the couple also changed their testimony for a second time and demanded new legal counsel because of their changed testimony. They now blame each other for the murder. The daughters said outside court they knew their mother had been trying to find a bursary for Mrs Rasivhaga, ‘who wanted to become a teacher’. So, said Mrs Kemp, they would try to fulfil their mother’s last wish. They also praised the investigating officers, police insp. Moses Mmatli and constable Selina Chengwe for their excellence in policing. Rasivhaga and Singo remain in custody. Source: Beeld http://jv.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2515417,00.html

2009-04-01 Bloemfontein - The brutal ‘muti-related murders’ of two Free State farmers at Vierfontein in Viljoenskroon were deplored by the commercial farmers body Free State Agriculture president Louw Steytler, who ‘strongly condemned the cowardly and gross manner of the murders. I urge farmers to get involved in Free State Agriculture's rural safety plan," he said in a statement.

Picture: South Africa has about 200,000 registered ‘traditiional healers’ who legally have the identical status of Western-trained medical practitioners. This ‘muti-shop’ is located in downtown Johannesburg’s Diagonal Street. The vast majority of black South Africans go to traditional healers instead of Western doctors for their ailments.

This follows the arrest of a Lesotho man who described himself as a ‘traditional healer’ in his first court appearance. he was arrested on the farm of murdered Jan van Wyk, 82. It was reported that the man was found sweeping the veranda and making food, when discovered by Johan Engelbrecht and other members of Free State Agriculture's rural safety organisation. The man ran inside the homestead and threatened the security detail with gardening shears. They were able to apprehend him, however, reported Tom de Wet and Marisa Phillips of Beeld newspaper. seeVan Wyk's mutilated body – his genitals had been cut off -- was found in the dining room of the house. One of the suspected murder weapons and beads covered in blood were found buried in the fields next to a lion camp near a neighbouring farmer Basie Venter’s homestead, who was found murdered in exactly the same way just hours earlier.Van Wyk, a retired policeman who only alone stayed on his farm over the weekends, was allegedly lured outside where he was bashed over the head with a shovel, dragged inside the homestead while still alive -- and then mutilated. This is a clear indication that this was a 'murder to harvest body parts for ‘traditional medicine’, as this is inevitably done while the poor victims are still alive. The claim by the arrested man that he was a ‘traditional healer’ further reinforces this believe, expressed by local police. The same arrested man was identified by Basie Venter’s widow Mary, 68, who had witnessed the attack around 21:15 through a window in the house. Venter was attacked with an iron rod, police said. Steytler conveyed the organisation's sympathy to the victim's families. “We regret these brutal attacks and murders on the farmers." Steytler said the murders seemed muti-related and were ‘barbaric and had no place in a modern world’. Kroonstad police spokesman Maselela Langa confirmed the murders. He said the 25-year-old man, a Lesotho citizen, appeared in the Viljoenskroon Magistrate's Court . see

May 13 2009 The UK-based son in law of Mrs Johanna Retief van Aarde, 79, bludgeoned to death on Gordon’s Bay on May 21 2006, testified in the Western Cape High Court at the trial of nine men accused of murdering her, that ‘she had been so frail and weak that she was unable to walk far’. This is how Gerrit Skitter described his last visit with his mother-in-law, Johanna Retief van Aarde, 79, about three months before she was bludgeoned to death in her Gordon's Bay home on May 21 three years ago. Skitter on Monday testified in the Western Cape High Court in the trial of nine men accused of breaking into Van Aarde's home, murdering her and then breaking into a neighbouring home. There, they allegedly held four people at gunpoint, including a five months' pregnant woman, who was raped. Charged are Luyanda Zaza, Simon Lolo, Mzamu Ncwana, Thembile Ngxowe, Siyathemba Tshanyela, Lungile Mayo, Thomas Baraza, Vuyile Msaseni and Siyabonga Zanzele. Zanzele also faces a rape charge. Skitter, who had arrived from Britain for the trial, testified as a state witness, saying that about three months before Mrs Van Aarde's murder, he and his wife had emigrated to Britain. When prosecutor Lenro Badenhorst questioned him about Van Aarde's physical strength, he said she had been frail. "She could walk but she couldn't walk for very long distances. She was weak," he said. He said his mother-in-law had lived alone and, before he and his wife had emigrated, they had visited her nearly every day. Skitter identified her home using photographs and pointed out the windows where he had installed burglar bars. journalist email: caryn.dolley@inl.co.za This article was originally published on page 4 of Cape Times on May 13, 2009 http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=15&art_id=vn20090513051720700C573982

May 13 2009 Sherlissa Peters reports from the Pietermaritzburg High Court in KwaZulu-Natal that two men were found guilty of murdering KwaZulu-Natal farmer Marc Pohlman. Judge Herbert Msimang convicted Msiko Malinga, 27, and Felakuphi Zondi, 22, on Tuesday of murder and robbery with aggravating circumstances. The men pleaded not guilty despite overwhelming evidence against them which included ballistic evidence that matched spent cartridge casings at the scene of the murder with the firearm found in Malinga's possession on his arrest, as well as fingerprint evidence that linked the men to the crime scene. Msimang said: "The evidence submitted by both accused men is clearly false beyond all reasonable doubt. There can be no question as to the guilt of the accused." He said they were two of the worst witnesses he had ever had the misfortune to come across. In mitigation of sentence, defence counsel for Malinga and Zondi conceded that ‘there were no substantial and compelling circumstances present to deviate from the prescribed minimum sentence of life imprisonment on the murder charge’. Msimang agreed with this submission, adding that the duo had showed no mercy to the Pohlman family. "They could have simply taken what they wanted and left the family intact. However, they decided to attack this young family and leave them without a husband and father," he said. Prosecutor Dalene Barnard labelled the murder a "senseless" killing. "The family were vulnerable targets that posed no threat to their assailants." Barnard said it was shocking that in the face of incriminating evidence against them, the men had still pleaded not guilty and had shown no remorse for their actions. Pohlman, 31, was shot dead on his smallholding on February 22, 2008. He was shot twice in the chest. His killers got away with three cellphones, cash and a bottle of brandy. Pohlman is survived by his wife, Caroline, and two children. In her testimony, his wife said that on the day of the attack she had been sitting on the veranda at about 7pm and her husband had been sanding the stairs with a machine. She said their children, aged three and four, were with them. "We noticed two men enter our front gate and approach us. It initially looked as though they were having an argument and were no danger to us, but then we saw that one of the men had a gun," she said. She said her husband had tried to calm the situation before telling her to get out with the children. "I turned to grab my kids and that's when I heard the first gunshot. I rushed the children into the bathroom and because it does not have a lock I physically barricaded the door with my body." Pohlman said the assailant had then tried to break down the bathroom door. That was when she had heard the second gunshot. "He kicked and pushed and eventually got his head and arm around the door. He slapped me and managed to get in and then dragged me back to the veranda." She said the man had demanded cellphones from her. "At that point the gunman came toward us and told his accomplice that they needed to go. My assailant let go of me. That's when I ran back to the bathroom to my children and barricaded us in again." Several minutes had passed before she opened the door to shout to her husband. "I got no response. I came out of the bathroom and did a quick check of the house to make sure the attackers were gone. I took my children and put them into the car. That's when I saw my husband lying close to the fence." This article was originally published on page 3 of Daily News on May 13, 2009 http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=15&art_id=vn20090513124017553C827775

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Rapes of white SA men in police-jails is a war-crime pattern

What is Genocide?

IMPORTANT NOTICE

October 20 2017

Please note that my site with the PAST SEVEN YEARS' information on atrocities against white South Africas, was hacked away. It used to be on https://www.censorbugbear.org. I apologize that this information is no longer available online. Anyone needing information about specific cases please email me at a.j.stuijt@knid.nl

For a name-list of murdered white farmers, - smallholders and their family and workers in South Africa, up to April 2011, view:

and for reports of human-rights violations against South African minorities, including whites, after 2011 see: http://censorbugbear-reports.blogspot.nl

The term "genocide" was coined by legal scholar Raphael Lemkin in 1943, writing:

'Generally speaking, genocide does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation, except when accomplished by mass killings of all members of a nation. It is intended rather to signify a coordinated plan of different actionsaiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves.

The objectives of such a plan would be the disintegration of the political and social institutions, of culture, language, national feelings, religion, and the economic existence of national groups, and the destruction of personal security, liberty, health, dignity and lives of the members of such groups... '